Why does that well-worn proverb remind us of Skewville? Check out the “Playground Tactics” on display at their new show in San Francisco’s White Walls Gallery and you’ll get a sense of these stickball kids and what it is like to grow up playing on the street. There aren’t any rubber mats to catch you before the pavement, the ball may smash the corner deli window and you may dent the hood of that car you’re standing on. But kids will be kids.
Mr. Deville shows BSA readers these cool pics of the opening of “Playground Tactics”, and you can see that play is an integral part of the Skewville process, where taking stuff too seriously is not advised, unless somebody sticks their bubble gum in your hair. Then you should chase them down and give them a beating.
The Skewvilles are reaching a milestone in their twin lives: They are turning 80. They grow up so fast! It seems like just yesterday they were 76. Join the Celebrations at Factory Fresh with a party and a retrospective of their work next week. For more information click here
Berlin based artist Evol took a trip outside his home town across the English Channel to London to create his most recent installation. Known for his ingenious and humorous re-imagining of existing street structures as architecture – sometimes with “giant” tags across them, Evols’ painstaking attention to detail puts you inside his miniature world instantly.
We’re very pleased that writer Garry Hunter joins us today to give BSA readers a better understanding of the work of Evol;
Evol has a fascination for sites that focus on meat production, having previously chosen a former Dresden slaughterhouse for his installation Caspar-David-Friedrich-Stadt. Perhaps influenced by Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse 5, a fantasy novel set during the firebombing of the city in World War Two, the title references the most important German artist of the early 19th Century. While Freidrich is best known for his allegorical landscape paintings, Evol creates pieces that comment on the very opposite of the Romantic school – urban decay.
A housing block with a graffiti tag is nothing new, but upon closer inspection these images reveal how cleverly Berlin based Evol plays with scale and social comment. Taking stencilling to new levels of detail, including St. Georges Cross English flags beloved by soccer fans and the satellite dishes, he recently completed this major piece in London’s Smithfield meat market.
By transforming a dozen concrete blocks into miniature apartment blocks Evol reproduces the monstrosity of the estate that included his former Berlin home into a miniature modernist housing estate. The installation has become a tea break destination for contractors working on the nearby Cross-rail high speed transport link.
Welcome to our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Destroy All Design, En Masse, False, Goel, Lisa Enxing, Logan Hicks, NTAS 1979, Pez, Pink Clouds, Ron English, and this snappy new one from VINZ that was set free in Williamsburg last week.
This section of Los Angeles is like so many – teaming anonymous streams of cars and trucks rumbling by, oblivious, almost menacing to you on the sidewalk with their rapacious roar as you ascend the ladder, can in hand, a glint of mischief in your eye. Headphones buffer the cacophony, the conversations with mates giving warmth in this garish flashing peopled no-mans’ land.
With a sense of satisfaction the Street Artist collaborative Cyrcle complete their first installment of a year-long series for the LA Freewalls project on Mateo Street next to Aiko, Saber, and Kofie. Exclusively for you, photographer Carlos Gonzalez captures these artists in the Spring of life as they create in the bluish hues of Winter.
“These Boots Are Made for Walking” Nancy Sinatra (VIDEO)
Pure Evil Goes Pop! Saturday at Corey Helford (LA)
Ludo in Rome Saturday
Ryan Seslow and Borbay
Cheap Art at the Affordable Art Fair This Weekend in LA
FAILE ON FILM: From Ride5 Films (VIDEO)
RETNA with Primary Flight in Miami (VIDEO)
Herakut for NUART 2011 (VIDEO)
En Masse at “Art San Diego” 2011 by Fred Caron (VIDEO)
<<<<<>>>>><<<<>><><><><><>>><<
First we’d like to ask that all the Ladies get up from the desk and do some strutting around the office in high heel boots. That should liven up an otherwise grey winter day right? Come on boots, start walkin’ !
Pure Evil Goes Pop! Saturday at Corey Helford (LA)
Inspired by the relative ease of reproducing masterworks by so-called “copy villages” in China, as well as the reductivist assessment the market does to an artist’s body of work, Street Artist Pure Evil is knocking out versions of Jackie and Liz with black eyes dripping to the floor, just for fun.
Says the artist, “Edward Albee’s film ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ starring Taylor and Burton brilliantly illustrates a nightmare couple who use alcohol to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other. I was amazed at the film and so I did a painting of ‘Richard Burtons Nightmare’ / Liz Taylor’ and a print in 2 POP colourways and 2 months later, Liz died…”
Pure Evil Goes Pop! Opening on Saturday at Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, Los Angeles.
For further information regarding this show click here
Cheap Art at the Affordable Art Fair This Weekend in LA
Almost 300 emerging and established artist show work this weekend in LA at the Affordable Art Fair. With prices from $100 to up to $10K. Be on the look out for C.A.V.E. Gallery at booth C-8 and for Thinkspace Gallery on booth B-9.
For further information, complete list of exhibitors, schedules and directions go to the Affordable Art Fair site here
Primary Flight teams up with RETNA in Miami to paint on Brimstone by Colin M Day.
Herakut for NUART 2011 (VIDEO)
A fine film of the adorable duo in action at Nuart this year as they stretch their imaginations for an installation that is nothing short of, and more than, set design.
En Masse at “Art San Diego” 2011 by Fred Caron (VIDEO)
“Street Art: It’s a Living Breathing Thing on the Street,” says Patrick Miller
A few months ago, the independent doc filmmakers from Ride5 Films interviewed FAILE and did a beautiful, striking job of it.
The five-minute short film explores the motivation and the message behind their art – why they make it, how they make it and how they hope people will interact with it.
Of particular interest is the ruminating that both Patricks did about an historic event that affected them strongly as kids, and they explain in some detail the relevance of at least one of the recurring images in the Faile library – as well as the date 1986 (or number 86) that is often spotted in their work.
“…that night we were talking about the 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster and we had very specific memories about where we were and what was going on that that time,” explains Patrick O’Neil.
With Special thanks to Ryan, Chris and Liz from Ride5 FIlms for sharing this with Brooklyn Street Art.
YEEE HAAAAWWWW! Brooklyn Street Artist JMR has been exploring the dusty detritus of Dallas for a spell and has found that some of the BIG D’s outlying areas remind him of the wildness of abandoned spots in Brooklyn that provided succor and inspiration to artists and performers and poets and wise guys at the turn of the century. But he has no illusions about the future for a lively hipster art scene here. For one thing, there are no redheads from Portland with 36 stringed home-made musical instruments connected to a projector here yet. Naturally while exploring, JMR brought some paint with him. Here’s what he’s been seeing…
“The wall was offered to me in collaboration with a Dallas graff legend named Ozone. The building is a live-work space for two local guys starting a longboard company/music studio. They also repair motorcycles while watching documentaries in their make-shift living room; it’s a very early 90s Williamsburg ‘Frontier Land’ vibe, sans the imminent real estate surge. That’s never coming here and it’s refreshing. In the midst of this industrial lower class neighborhood at night you can light a fire and sit around it and talk about politics or whatever, while drinking beer and smoking.
There’s a bunch of hardcore graff writers out here as well, who I met through this painting. Although the city is oddly devoid of any tags, throw-ups, or fill-ins, there is a major freight yard where trains lay up for days and people are getting busy. The trains are bombed well and it’s inspiring to watch them pass, and frustrating to try and snag flix with my iPhone, fumbling to keep up with the motion.”
Philadephia born New York Street Artist Stephen Powers AKA ESPO has been covering walls in Brooklyn since last summer with puns, phrases, and messages that hide in plain sight. Borrowing from a visual vocabulary of mid 20th century commercial signage and injecting his low-brow sarcasm and a knack for wordplay, the former graffiti writer perfected this kind of lettering more than a decade ago doing non-commissioned street art work in broad daylight on storefront grates in dilapidated New York neighborhoods.
Like his barking carney signage for famous Coney Island, the work has all the subtlety of a cannonball. But you may be bamboozled. The sharply sweet uptown fonts and punchy retro palette could look like he’s giving you the straight dope, but a second glance reveals the winking eye of a court jester. With an advertisers sensibility, his recent expansive public art installations – “Love Letters” to Philadelphia, Syracuse, and now Brooklyn – have a tough-as-nails enamel gloss while the soft center swirls a sentiment more gooey, even maudlin.
Using phrases snatched directly from Brooklyn folks conversations on the street as well as his penchant for the parlance of snake oil salesmen, Powers yells boldly these non-sequitur and illusory missives across a parking garage, regularly looking back to see if “yah heard?”. It’s what emotional signage this size demands and gets, if only for a second.
Today we honor a great man, Martin Luther King Jr., whose words remind us to dig deep and find our better selves and to work toward economic justice, social justice, and equality and dignity for each person. His words and actions inspire people around the world as we celebrate his birthday; Here are two recent portraits of Dr. King – one in New York, and one from Mongolia.
“All we say to America is, “Be true to what you said on paper.” If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand some of these illegal injunctions. Maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn’t committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. And so just as I say, we aren’t going to let dogs or water hoses turn us around, we aren’t going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on.
We need all of you.”
~ Martin Luther King Speech – “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”
at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), Memphis, Tennessee, April 3, 1968
So, what have you been up to so far this year? Watching Sh*t Cats Say? We’ve been learning cool stuff like Specter and friends Russell and Peter getting up in the JCC center , imagining who on earth might create a Street Art piece lionizing Ron Paul, seeing the spanky new Aiko and Bast reunited wall, and reading impressive 2 page email press releases for Street Artists who apparently get up in NYC but we never actually see and no one talks about. It’s a weird fun life and we’re totally okay with it.
Meanwhile, here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week including Aiko, Anthony Lister, TMNK, Bast, C215, Dain, ECB, Gaia, Gilf!, Gold Dust, Gufo, How & Nosm, Cope, Juango, KCA, Oiler, Palladino, Shin Shin, Snort, and Xavier.
Last weekend Street Artists Gaia and Nanook had some fun touring around with photographer Martha Cooper in her neighborhood of South West Baltimore. Gaia’s ongoing “Legacy” series of big ol’ heads of white men – we should say portraits – who have contributed to the history of urban environments and conditions continues here too.
We’ve been seeing Gaia continue this theme recently in cities like New York, Albany,Atlanta,Miami and even his studio piece in our “Street Art Saved My Life” show last summer in LA – and it’s strangely rewarding and even entertaining…site specific postings of people like NYC’s master builder and corporate beneficiary Robert Moses from mid-20th century may look strange posted in the wilds of decayed New York, yet his big mug is probably more related to the state of our local economy than most people who are running things today. Where Moses’ critics accused him of destroying much of New York’s culture and life through building, Baltimore’s ill-famed developer is accused of killing parts of the city through active neglect. Gaia’s new big head is that of Baltimore billionaire Harry Weinberg, who bought clusters of buildings and abandoned them, effectively bringing blight to part of the city for decades, including today, according to Gaia’s position paper on the topic.
Gaia frequently assists passersby with helpful background information to help explain and contextualize his work like this one-pager above. (copyright Gaia)
“ First we installed a site generated piece of Weinberg’s portrait across the street from his formerly decrepit, now demolished, real estate holdings,” explains Gaia about his travels with the well-known street life photographer. Afterward they all toured with Martha through her hood, hearing her perspective and insights on urban decay and sociological aspects of the neighborhood now better known as the site for the TV show “The Wire” – a tour which is a genuine treat BSA has also enjoyed.
Eventually it was time to put up a Gaia piece created from a Martha photograph of HE3 from the 1970s. Says, Gaia, “The piece is situated in an alley where a lot of the neighbors congregate and is right now the street from the active stables and pigeon coops.”
1. “Lost and Found” Tonight in Brooklyn
2. “On the River…”, Robyn Hasty AKA Imminent Disaster Open Today
3. SuperTwins Skewville in San Francisco Employing “Playground Tactics”
4. “Hybrid Thinking” at Jonathan Levine Saturday
5. Muhammad Ali Hits 70, and the Show Begins Saturday
6. Klughaus Gallery, Jesse Edwards show “Dialogue of the Streets”
7. Le Salon d’Art, Fumero and Joseph Meloy , “90 Stanton Street Art Show”
8. Jesse Edwards by Tom Gould (VIDEO)
9. Kophns One: Kophenjoy by The Site Unscene (VIDEO)
10. Ben Eine Off Canvas by Studio Stare (VIDEO)
“Lost and Found” Tonight in Brooklyn
“Lost & Found” opens today at Mighty Tanaka Gallery in DUMBO, Brooklyn with the participation of Adam Void, Alice Mizrachi, Curtis Readel, ELLE & John Breiner:
“On the River…”, Robyn Hasty AKA Imminent Disaster Open Today
Her first New York solo show “On The River…” is actually the joining of two strong and handsome rivers into one. Her Street Art work finds a sister in this new wet-plate photograph collection at the cozy Kesting/Ray Gallery in Manhattan.
For further information regarding this show click here
SuperTwins Skewville in San Francisco Employing “Playground Tactics”
The Queens natives and New York wiseguys are re-wiring an entire band from their imagined musical teen heartthrob youth – the one where Droo was adding more gel to his perfect hair and punishing his Fender onstage and Ad was getting high in the mop closet. White Walls in San Francisco takes the risk of letting the Street Art duo put on a show this time, and you can expect more “Playground Tactics” Saturday.
Skewville “Playground Tactics” (image courtesy of the gallery)
For further information regarding this show click here
“Hybrid Thinking” at Jonathan Levine Saturday
“There’s a growing creative movement that we’ve dubbed Hybridism: a blend of both street art and fine art – a hybrid – as the raw meets the refined,” as the 2009 group show at Brooklyn’s Mighty Tanaka observed while giving evidence of what was happening on the streets and in galleries in the Brooklyn show “Hybridism”. Of course, Daniel Feral’s diagram points to 2008 as the beginning of “Hybridism”.
Similarly a year ago at Hold-Up Gallery in LA there was the “Hi-Graff” show that excitingly merged many Graff and Street Art movements as we observed at the time, “Those Cold War years are being chopped away brick by brick like the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, and a new language borrowing vocabulary from graffiti, street art, fine art, advertising, and pop/punk/hiphop/skater/cholo/tattoo culture continues to emerge in ways we never thought of before.”
Now in 2012 Manhattan’s Wooster Collective continues the conversation to reveal “Hybrid Thinking”, their collection of an international roster (South Africa, Germany, Spain, Amsterdam, Beijing) of names that have been successful in the galleries and streets, illustrating what you have been seeing alive and expanding for the last decade. In the curators’ words: “Hybrid Thinking refers to the current zeitgeist of our time: disparate cultures coming together to create something completely new.”
This roster includes Dal, Herakut, Hyuro, Roa, Sit and Vinz.
For further information regarding this show click here
Muhammad Ali Hits 70, and the Show Begins Saturday
An culturally interesting thematic show honoring the fighter Muhammad Ali called “Ali The Greatest”opens tomorrow at Evolve Gallery in Sacramento, CA. With new stuff from Joe Iurato and David Flores among others, the show is expected to travel to Vegas and New York and celebrates the 70th birthday of the man.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
